Something
by Litanya
Summary: When tragedy strikes, how will one of the digidestined deal with the situation they are thrown in? Character death, One-shot


Litanya: I'm not in the mood to talk. I do not own Digimon. Thoughts are written in italics. This fic occurs after 01 and is once again about Tai. I don't seem to be able to write about anybody else! But I might be writing a Henrika fic soon… I think that Henry and Rika are a cool couple, especially as Jurato is hinted at all the way throughout season 3.

**_Something_**

_Breathe in and out. Never stop. Always a constant rise and fall. What if it stopped? What if, in the middle of a rise, it stuttered and fell? Would people notice? Would you notice? I've always wondered what could make someone want to give up on life. I've finally found the answer. They feel like the world is against them. It's like all of their worries are constantly on their shoulders, even if they have no worries. Their shoulders ache all of the time and they can't concentrate for more than two seconds. And eventually it gets too much. But all of this usually starts after something happens to them._

_People are cruel. To gain things for themselves they wreck other peoples' lives. And they don't care. They don't care about the pain they are putting others through. As long as they are happy, they don't care. Well, I'm sick of pain, sick of the pain that you put me through. All of you. Yes, all of you. You all hurt me, taunt me and give me pain. I've said nothing and carried on like it never happened, but it hurts. It hurts to think that my so called 'friends' hurt me so much. And my sister; you're almost worse than the others. How could you? I've looked after you since you were born. Except for one mistake, I looked after you well. And now you join the others, against me. But isn't that the way life goes? People hurt, people die from the hurt from other people. Its life's little circle; cruel and harsh. We've all been included in this cycle. I've helped all of you and yet you treat me as an enemy. All I've ever done is help you. I've never said a bad word about any of you. Never tried to hurt you. And yet now you are all against me. Why? Is it because I live? I'm sorry. I never asked to live. If it had been up to me, you would all be safe. And I wouldn't hurt you, I would help you. . . . I'm kidding myself. You are not just my 'friends' that happened to turn against me. No, it's much worse than that. You are my family. It was easier believing that you were my friends. Families are supposed to love each other. _Supposed to_ anyway. At least I still have my friends though. That is, until they find out the truth. . ._

"Mr. Kamiya, pay attention!" the brown haired boy looked up from the piece of paper he had been scribbling on. The whole class was staring at him, including a very annoyed teacher.

"Sorry," he quickly pushed the paper he had written on underneath a pile of his books, before his teacher could see it. The class turned back to face the front, but the teacher glared at him before finally going back to teaching the class. Tai sighed, glad that the attention was off him for the moment. The class continued slowly and Tai found himself looking at the clock every two minutes, literally. When the bell finally rung and released him from his boredom, he was the first one out of his seat.

"Mr. Kamiya, I would like a word with you please," _Darn it!_ Tai turned back around and walked to the front of the classroom, dropping his books back down on his table, not noticing the piece of paper flutter to the floor.

"Yes Ms. Hayne?" he tried to be polite; he didn't want to be rude. He would get into even more trouble if he did.

"It was parent-teacher interviews last night and I didn't see your parents, although I requested to see them. I need to see the as soon as possible. Make sure you arrange an appointment with them," she packed all of her books into her bag and then stopped, glaring at him, "And I would appreciate if you actually listened in my classes. Keep that in mind for tomorrow's class." Tai nodded before stepping back so she could get past. He made a face at her retreating back, before going and picking up his books. He carried on going, only to bump into Sora. The auburn-haired girl was reading a sheet of paper. But that wasn't what made Tai stop in fear. It was the fact that the sheet of paper contained _his_ writing. It was the paper that he had been writing on in English. 

_'Please, please, PLEASE just think that it is for creative writing… wait, we don't have any at the moment. Umm… I could just be writing something? Umm… I don't know!'_ he prayed that she wouldn't think that what he had written was true.

"Tai, what is this?" her voice was low and deadly serious. Tai snatched the piece of paper off her and read the first line, putting his goofy grin on his face.

"This? Just writing. I was bored," he shrugged, as if the piece of paper was nothing. But she wouldn't let him off that easily, her crimson eyes suspicious.

"Are you sure? It seemed authentic to me."

"I must be a good writer then. You know my family, we're all really close. Well, maybe not distance-wise, but we're close as in a close family… You know what I mean," she didn't look totally convinced, but she nodded anyway. 

"Speaking of your family how is Kari anyway?" Tai stiffened a little, but Sora didn't notice. They continued to walk to their lockers which, by luck, happened to be side by side. Tai fidgeted with the combination on his lock a little nervously. Again Sora didn't notice his nerves.

"Well ever since she went to boarding school she hasn't really been talking to me much, obviously. Last time I heard from her she was dea-definitely okay. She sent me an e-mail filled with pink and wishes that everyone was fine," he finally managed to open his locker and he stuffed in his English books, ripping the paper in half as he did so.

"Cool, I'll e-mail her and see how she is. I really shouldn't have lost contact. After all, I have known her since she was two; it seems to be a shame to have lost contact with her after knowing her for ten years. I can't believe that this will be the tenth year that I've known her and I haven't spoken to her in two years," she picked her lunch up from out of her bag and they began to make their way down to the cafeteria. Tai was about to reply when he stopped, turning a little pale.

"I've got to go Sora, I just remembered something that I forgot," she watched him as he disappeared back around the corner. She shrugged, puzzled at his strange behavior and continued on her way to meet the others.

*        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *

Tai leaned the back of his head against the cool wall, closing his eyes to try to block out what he was seeing. His sister was standing in front of him, deathly pale.

_'You have to help me Tai! Mum and Dad are really injured and we need your help! Why won't you help? Why are you here when you should be with us? We are a family; we should be together! You even said it yourself; family should be together forever,'_ he tried to block out his sister's high-pitched voice, but whatever he tried it still rang in his ears. His family. He had betrayed his family. He should be with his family, not standing around at school, _'Tai, hurry! Nobody needs you here, but I need you, and so do Mum and Dad! Everybody here has somebody to cling onto. Sora has Matt; she loves him and not you. Joe and Mimi have each other and even Izzy has Sari, that computer freak. No one needs you but we do. Come and find us.'_ Tai was so confused, he didn't want to go and yet he was needed. They needed him, yet he wouldn't go. How selfish was that?

"Hey Tai, why aren't you with the others in the cafeteria?" Tai opened his eyes to find Joe looking at him, with his head tilted on one side.

"I was just on my way there, but I felt a little dizzy for a second. But I'm fine now. Are you going there too?" Joe nodded and Tai pushed himself off the wall to keep the older boy company. Although he was only 1 year older than Tai, Joe was taller than him by almost 12 centimeters. It was amazing how tall he was.

"Are you sure that you are feeling better now? Are you having any other signs of sickness other than that dizzy spell?" Tai could tell that Joe was concerned, but he wished that he wasn't. He didn't feel like answering any questions, he just wanted to be left alone.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just haven't drunken enough today. I'm going to buy a drink now," they arrived at the loud cafeteria and they parted ways. Joe went to sit down with the others whilst Tai lined up to buy a drink. He wasn't hungry enough to eat and he decided to claim that he had eaten earlier. Kari was still next to him; he could hear her high-pitched voice over everything.

_'This was your entire fault in the first place. If you hadn't wanted to go there then this wouldn't have happened. And you're the one deserting us! You should be here, not enjoying yourself talking with your friends,'_ Tai jumped a little as he was pushed up to the counter. He hadn't even realised that the line had moved and it was his turn. He asked for a drink and paid for it in a daze. He somehow managed to get to where the others were sitting without injuring himself, but he had no idea how he did it.

"Hey Tai, did you get what you forgot?" Sora asked as he took a seat next to her. She was leaning against Matt, her boyfriend and Tai had to agree that Kari was right. He was alone.

"Yeah, I managed to get it," he half-mumbled as he took the lid of his orange juice off and threw it onto the table. Kari's presence was starting to make him feel really guilty and he wanted to punch himself.

"Are you alright Tai?" Izzy peered at him as though he was some sort of specimen that he could examine. Tai stopped drinking and shrugged.

"Everything's just peachy, why?" they didn't detect the sarcasm in his voice, which Tai thought was pretty funny. It must have been because he had his goofy grin plastered to his face for eternity. 

_'At least you're not dead,'_ Kari's voice whispered into his ear, making him drop his drink and miss the question Sora asked him. He stared at the table in front of him, ignoring the pictures of his little sister that flashed through his head.

"Tai? You there?" he blinked as he saw Sora wave her hand in front of his face. 

"Uh, yeah, sorry about that, my mind wandered,' _why? Why won't they leave me alone?_ He waited for Kari's high-pitched answer, but it didn't come. He noticed that all of his friends were looking at him strangely, so he mentally shook himself and started to pay attention.

"You sure that you're okay Tai? You said that you were feeling dizzy before," Joe reminded him, making Sora turn to Tai with her eyebrows raised.

"You never said that you weren't feeling well. We'd better take you to the nurse if you get much worse."

"NO!" he surprised all of his friends and himself by sounding so definite about that, "I mean… uh… I got to go," he jumped up and left his friends staring after him, wondering what was happening. Unfortunately Kari left with him.

*        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *

_'Are you coming to join us now? It will be so good to be a family again. We all miss you terribly and there is no life for you here. Your friends only pretend to care, but none of them came after you, did they? It's like they haven't figured out that I am not at boarding school. After two years they haven't figured it out. And you still haven't joined us. But that's going to change today, isn't it?'_ Tai couldn't stand it anymore. For two years Kari had followed him around everywhere, and yet he was the only one that could see her. Tears formed in his eyes, but they refused to fall, they just stayed there until he managed to blink them away.

The sky was cloudy and it was raining so hard that he could hardly see through it, but he continued to stand on the pavement next to an intersection, ignoring the stares people walking past with umbrellas. This was where it had happened, where it had all begun. Where Kari had started to follow him.

**_~F L A S H B A C K~_**__

**_It was a nice sunny day and a thirteen year old Tai was bored around the house._**

****

**_"Mum, can we go to the soccer field? We can all have a game together," his family weren't the ideal opponents, but it was the best he could do and at least they were better than nothing._**

****

**_"That sounds like a good idea. Whilst we're there we can make a family day out of it and we can have a barbeque at the park, since it's such a nice day!" Tai almost groaned after she said that. The thought of his mother's cooking being barbequed was enough to make him feel sick._**

****

**_"Yeah, that sounds fun!" ten year old Kari piped up, smiling up at her older brother whilst fingering the new whistle he had bought her. Since she had given Gatomon her old one, Tai had given her a new whistle once they had returned to the real world. They both knew that she didn't need it, but it was something that they both would remember._**

****

**_"I'll go and put the food in the car. We'll have to drive because it's too far away to carry all of the stuff we'll need," Mr. Kamiya picked out a few things from the fridge and put it all into a basket. Tai grabbed his soccer ball and his and Kari's coats out of their room, whilst Kari and his mother helped his father. In twenty minutes they were ready to leave. They piled into the car, eager to be at the park. The sun was still shining and it was a beautiful day to be outside._**

****

**_"This is going to be so fun! I'll beat the three of you at once!" Tai exclaimed, happy to be in good company. He loved his family and it was good to keep a good relationship with them._**

****

**_"I don't think so Tai. I used to be quiet a good player in my day," Mr. Kamiya chuckled, causing Tai to laugh._**

****

**_"Yeah, back when you were ten! That was a long time ago and I still think that I could beat you even when you were younger!" Tai boasted, making the females in the car shake their heads._**

****

**_"We'll see when we get there then, won't we?" Mrs. Kamiya turned around and smiled at Tai and Kari, who looked back at her innocently._**

****

**_"I think that it'll be a draw!" Kari exclaimed, smiling happily. She loved the warm feeling she got whenever she was with her family. Tai just shook his head and the car fell into a comfortable silence. They were only five minutes away from the soccer field when it happened. They were going through traffic lights at an intersection when a car coming from their right didn't stop, and went through the red light. It didn't help that the car was also speeding. It slammed into the Kamiya's car, sending it spinning across the road into the cars that were waiting for a green light. Tai was thrown into the side of the car heavily and he heard lots of little smashing noises as his head crashed into the side of the car, sending him unconscious. He didn't even hear any screams, it happened too fast. _**

****

**_~E N D      O F      F L A S H B A C K~_**

That had been two years ago. Tai had been in hospital for a month afterwards, slowly recovering from all of his wounds. He had been lucky to survive. After leaving the hospital he had finally been told what had happened. The driver that had smashed into them had been drunk and had been speeding. The car had hit right where Mr. Kamiya and Kari had been sitting and they had been killed instantly. Their car had been pushed into other cars that were waiting for a green light. The force of that impact had killed Tai's mother. Tai had only survived because a car didn't crash at the spot where he was sitting. That was the only thing that saved him. He wished that he was with his family. His friends still didn't know; he had lied to them because he still couldn't accept that his family was dead.

That was when Kari had begun to follow him around. When he had been let out of hospital. She wouldn't leave him alone, torturing him with his own guilt. Sometimes his parents would join her, but usually it was only Kari. It was driving him insane. Wait, if he was seeing dead people, he already _was_ insane.

He bent down at the pole to the traffic lights. Next to them, on the footpath, was a little tribute to his family and the other three people that had died there. The names of the six people killed that day were engraved into it and it was kept clean by the family members of the people that died. 

**_Mari Kamiya_**

**_1956-2001_**

****

**_Alexi Kamiya_**

**_1954-2001_**

****

**_Hikari Kamiya_**

**_1991-2001_**

He felt like crying all over again. All that would fit on the memorial was their names and the years of birth and death. They had their own graves with little messages on, but Tai felt that this little memorial should be personal too. He didn't want to look up because he knew Kari was there. He could sense her presence without even having to see her.

_'So, you're coming to join us at the place where we left you, how fitting!'_ she giggled with delight and blew the whistle that was around her neck, _'You lied by the way. You told me that all I would need to do was blow this whistle and you would be there. I blew it until I turned blue, but you didn't come help me. Why did you lie?'_ He didn't know what to reply; he just stood and stared at her, before bending down to the memorial again. He didn't know what he was waiting for, before he went to join his family, but something was holding him back.

"Tai!" he stiffened as he heard Sora call out to him and he knew that he had waited too long. His best friend ran over to him, a little out of breath, "Where were you Tai? You missed all of the last class and you look like your not even going to go to soccer. What's wrong with you today?" She followed his eyes and saw that he was staring at the memorial.

"I-I was here. I guess that I lost track of the time," he stood quickly, almost falling in his haste to get up. Sora didn't notice, she was examining the memorial.

"Why would you be here? I didn't know that you knew someone that died on this intersection," Kari was smirking behind Sora and Tai knew that he wouldn't be able to stop her from finding out.

"Yeah, I knew some of the people that died here," he didn't meet her eyes, but instead looked at the ground.

"I may know them too. I'll see. Merakai Kamora, no I don't know her, Tristan Kamora, nope, I don't know him either. He was 34 and she was 31. Poor things. Eliza Kamora, she was only 6, poor girl. Wait a minute, what's this?" she froze as she read the next three names on the list, "Mari, Alexi and Kari. Why didn't you tell us Tai? Tai?" But the boy had gone, disappeared. Sora looked around desperately for any sign of him, but she couldn't see him anywhere.

"What's this?" one of the leaves of a flower in the memorial was covering the last name on the memorial. This name looked newly engraved; like it was only a month old at most.

**_Taichi Kamiya_**

**_1988-2003_**

Sora stared at the name, then down at herself. She had been talking to a dead person just then. How had that happened? She was shaking in shock, with what she had found out. She reached out to put the flower back when she saw that it was covering yet another name.

**_Sora Takenouchi_**

**_1988-2003_**

This time when she looked up, Tai was standing next to her.

"I don't understand! What's happening?" she cried out, knowing that Taichi knew the answer.

"My family died here in 2001. We were on our way to the park to play soccer and then have a family picnic, but we were hit by a drunk driver. Kari, Mum and Dad all died, but I survived. I kept on seeing Kari's ghost standing next to me all of the time and it was driving me insane. When I got to the intersection I plunged into the traffic, but you followed me. We were both hit, and we died. Hence the '2003' date… we were killed two years after my family. Why did you come after me?" It took Sora a few seconds to remember what had happened. She smiled and stood up next to him.

"I came after you because I love you too much to watch you die. I was only going out with Matt to make you jealous, but you didn't see it. I didn't realise that you were trying to deal with the death of your family," Tai just smiled and leaned closer to her.

"It doesn't matter now, all that matters is that we are together now and we will be for eternity," and with those words Tai leaned down and they shared a passionate kiss that sealed their promise to be together forever. Behind them stood the Kamiyas, smiling at the two love birds.

The End.

Okay, was the end of that unexpected? I didn't expect that when I started to write it. Thank you for reading this, although it's not my best fic. If you are a Matt hater I suggest that you read my fic "Leadership." It's my favourite fic at the moment! This fic had a happy ending in a weird sort of way, because it was a Taiora! Yes, even I think that this fic is weird! Anyway, please read my other fic and don't forget to review!! I love you guys! And Steph, although Matt didn't die in this one, I hope you liked it!


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